02

Dec

Make your goals even SMARTER

Make your goals even smarter

Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It helps you to focus your attention and helps to organise your time and other resources in order to make the most out of your life. People who consistently achieve their goals state them in a very specific way. You might have heard of SMART goal setting, but as of today your goals can become even smart-ER!

Specific — Don’t be general or vague when setting your goals. Identify exactly what you set out to accomplish and be as specific as possible. Bad example: “Learn photography” — Better example: “Take photography for dummies course”

Measurable — Be sure to quantify the results that you are after. Add a number, a percentage or euro sign or any other form of measurement to ensure you can check if you have achieved your goal. Bad example: “Earn more money” — Better example: “Earn 10.000 euro more in 2016 than this year”

Actionable — Always use an action verb when formulating your goal, instead of the passive word be. So you know what you actually need to do in order to achieve your goal. Bad example: “Be more consistent in blogging” — Better example: “Write one blog post every week”

Realistic — Make sure you set your goal outside of your comfort zone, but not so far that you feel you are being delusional. That way you prevent yourself from pushing yourself too hard or giving up in the first place. Bad example: “Qualify for the PGA Tour” — Better example: “Lower my golf handicap from 28 to 24”

Time-bound — Goals are dreams with a deadline. So ensure you have clarity when each of your goals need to be accomplished. Otherwise they will only remain an aspiration. Bad example: “Lose 15 kilo” — Better example: “Lose 15 kilo by June 1st 2016”

So far nothing new perhaps, but here are two additional things to making your SMART goals for 2016 even smartER!

Exciting — Make sure your goals are personally compelling to you, something that really get’s you motivated. This is also influenced by the words that you choose. Bad example: “Take two weeks vacation this summer” — Better example: “Take a 31-day sabbatical in July”

Relevant — Your goals should be appropriate with the phase of your life. Everything has it’s season. Bad example (for a working mother): “Go back to school and get my MBA” — Better example: “Complete an online course in strategic planning”

Once you have written your goals, evaluate them against these seven attributes. This is appropriate for both your professional goals as the ones in your personal life, Marketing Superhero!